Plácido Domingo – a Short Biography
Plácido Domingo – a short biography Plácido Domingo was born in the Barrio de Salamanca district of Madrid on January 21, 1941. He is the son of Plácido Domingo Ferrer and Pepita Embil Echaníz, two Spanish Zarzuela performers, who nurtured his early musical abilities. Domingo's father, a violinist performing for opera and zarzuela orchestra, was half Catalan and half Aragonese, while his mother, an established singer, was a Basque. After moving to Mexico at the age of 8, Plácido Domingo went to Mexico City’s Conservatory of Music to study piano and conducting, but eventually was sidetracked into vocal training after his voice was discovered. The highly gifted singer had his first professional engagement as accompanist to his mother in a concert at Mérida, Yucatan, in 1957. He soon achieved great acclaim at international level. Challenged by cosmopolitan groups and new roles In 1961, Domingo made his operatic debut in a leading role as Alfredo in La Traviata at Monterrey. The performance of La Traviata included a baritone singing in Hungarian, a soprano in German, a tenor in Italian, and the chorus in Hebrew. Domingo credits this cosmopolitan group for improving his abilities in several languages. At the end of 1962, he signed a six month contract with the Israel National Opera in Tel Aviv but later extended the contract and stayed for two and a half years, singing in 280 performances and incorporating 12 different roles. Domingo has sung and continues to sing in every important Opera House in the world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Milan’s La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London's Covent Garden, Paris' Bastille Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Chicago's Lyric Opera, the Washington National Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Real in Madrid, and at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals.
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